


The Lengths That I Would Go Through

by dagas isa (dagas_isa)



Category: Bleach
Genre: Community: help_pakistan, Crush, M/M, Pre-Canon, School, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-08
Updated: 2010-10-08
Packaged: 2017-10-12 12:55:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/125044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dagas_isa/pseuds/dagas%20isa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shunsui reminisces on his days at the academy with Ukitake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lengths That I Would Go Through

**Author's Note:**

> Written for ravens_rising for her winning bid at help_pakistan.

If one asked Shunsui about the first time he noticed Ukitake and why, the answer would be surprisingly mundane.

"Hmm…" he would say, taking a pensive sip of warmed sake and contemplating the falling of cherry blossoms outside, and that easy-going gaze of his falls into a distance that measures a couple hundred years. "It would have to be during our training with Yama-jii. You could say he helped motivate me."

That short answer would not be a lie as it stood, but rather incomplete. They did, in fact, first meet in the spring—the first spring that the Shinigami Academy had been opened, but the noticing and realizations had not happened all at once, like an undeniable kidou blow to the head, but rather in steps.

\--

Back then, the Shinigami training was viewed as the perfect opportunity for the younger sons (and a few daughters) and the lesser nobility to occupy the new seats of power being created in Seireitei. Shunsui had been bored by the whole idea. The whole point of being a younger son was that he could live in peace and relative luxury of nobles without any of the responsibility that came with it. As the morning came and before the first time that any class would fall into formation—Shunsui half-contemplated not failing but simply coasting by and letting the louder and more aggressive ones take more than their fair share of Yama-jii's training and attention.

Ukitake had been the tall pale youth in the far field of his vision that day. Among all the rowdy ambitious Shinigami wannabes, Shunsui had sensed frailness in Ukitake—an impression confirmed when he tried to hide a cough. As Shunsui looked around, he realized that he hadn't been the only one to notice the cough, nor were all the observers as cool and laid-back as he was.

Shunsui walked over to the white-haired youth and offered a hand. "It would be troublesome if you were bullied." He hadn't known what to expect from Ukitake—a little groveling or perhaps his becoming an admirer of Shunsui's laid back and suave demeanor. If this shinigami training deal were to be even the least bit tolerable, he'd need to have someone he could play hooky with, preferably someone who would admire him.

The reaction Shunsui received that spring morning had been contrary to any expectations. Ukitake had just given a smile—the one given to a co-conspirator or an innocent bystander—and said very simply, "I think anyone who tried would believe so, yes."

Shunsui had walked away, not quite believing in the frail-looking Ukitake but willing to give the youth a chance to defend himself. Funny, Shunsui would muse when he reminisced on their first meetings, how minor that incident seems in the face of everything else they've been through in two-thousand years.

If not for Ukitake's smile, Shunsui speculated that he might have forgotten the whole incident.

\--

The next few times Shunsui had noticed Ukitake had been mostly in passing. True to his word, Ukitake took care of himself, mostly through the use of his charm and easy going demeanor. Despite his illnesses, Ukitake had been an all-rounder—applying himself equally to academics, _kidou_ , and sparring—and a driven one at that, while Shunsui barely got by. The capabilities to distinguish himself in his classes were always there; the motivation on the other hand still lacked. So, while Ukitake had risen to the top class, Shunsui had stayed in the comfort of the second rank.

The next time they actually came in contact with one another was in the Anatomy and Healing course taught by a _kidou_ master Yamamoto had recruited into his shinigami project, Unohana Retsu. Shunsui, Ukitake, and ten other brave (or, more accurately, bored) souls had crowded around a body on the floor, and though Shunsui had briefly questioned how students could have been bored in that situation, in reality, the body had been an obvious _gigai_ , and Unohana had already earned something of a reputation in the academy dorms for being an extreme pacifist. Barring extraordinary circumstances, there would be no excitement in her class.

Shunsui had about the same amount of drive for this class as any other class, which was to say, slim to none. But both of his crushes—though he would be loath to admit his former crush on Unohana, and had yet to realize the dawning one on his classmate—near made the class seem a little more interesting than other electives.

"You may all be wondering at the presence of a healer at the Shinigami academy. After all, you're all training to make wounds, not heal them," Unohana words contrasted directly with her soft voice and gentle face. "Of course, so are the enemies of Soul Society and, after this course is finished, I'm sure those with imagination will be able to understand the connection between anatomy and those you may wish to cause injury to. As a side effect, you may also be able to save the lives of yourselves or your comrades."

That, said with the most maternal of smiles, caught the attention of her students. "You will partner up with one of your classmates, and together you will be working with one of these which has been modified to simulate the common battle injuries." She gestured to the _gigai_. "Your final examination will be a completed report on the detailed condition of the patient, and the most common recommended treatments. Please select your lab partners."

In most things, Ukitake's bouts of illnesses did not seem to alter the other student's treatment of him—at least not as far as Shunsui could determine. Only here, in a place so closely connected with health and body did all his other friends mysteriously partner up with each other, which was all to Shunsui's liking.

He had walked over to Ukitake and smiled. "So I guess we're partners then," and for once he had to try to sound nonchalant. "I hope you're not too squeamish."

Ukitake had smiled back and looked at Shunsui with eyes that actually, sincerely measured him up. "Let's do our best."

For a little while at least, those words had actually stuck.

\--

Their lives at the Shinigami Academy after Unohana's course had remained fairly intertwined. Shunsui couldn't have put his finger on it back then, but they had something between them that otherwise lacked in their fellow students. Shunsui wouldn't have called it anything so arrogant as inner strength, but perhaps maturity, or an instinctual understanding of all battle could be—and more importantly—what battle could never really be for either of them, a life. Even outside class, they found themselves socializing as a pair just as often as they did with their peers.

Once the Anatomy and Healing course had ended, Shunsui had found it worth expending a marginal amount of effort to move into the first class—the one taught by Yama-jii personally—and study alongside Ukitake.

Yama-jii had paired them up to spar on the first day of training in the new class.

Shunsui gave an experimental wave of his _bokken_. "How about we just go easy on each other? I don't really feel like making an effort."

Ukitake shrugged and smiled. "We can play around, if you'd like."

If Ukitake had been a girl back then…of course Shunsui would have taken the opportunity to flirt. As it was, Shunsui did have to smile, and perhaps the expression was a little too big and too eager to be meaningless. And perhaps Shunsui had not cared enough to correct anybody's impression. "Let's play around then," he murmurs as he passes Ukitake to take his place on his side of the training room.

They bowed to each other and faced off. In the spirit of his proposed agreement, Shunsui sauntered forward only to narrowly avoid being knocked on his behind. Behind him, smiling that trademark smile with a fierce gleam in his eye Ukitake prepared for another charge.

"Is that how you play?" Shunsui had asked. He shifted his stance, and met Ukitake's gaze. "All right then, I accept."

To this day, they still laughed at the recollection that the most memorable sparring match the Shinigami academy had ever seen, more than three hundred years later had happened between a sick kid and the class slacker.

The romantic in Shunsui wanted to say that it had been a pretty good match.

\--

They had graduated together as full-fledged shinigami at the top of their class of thirty. Their future as far as Shunsui had been able to tell back then, was in the hands of Yamamoto and his dreams of a fully-formed shinigami army. Unfortunately, as Yamamoto made clear in his pre-graduation speech, reaching the top ranks would require years of works, perhaps centuries.

"What a pain. I'm counting on you," Shunsui said. "You could make me your lieutenant."

Ukitake shook his head. "I didn't raise you up, just to see you fall behind now." With no more elaboration, he fell back into line. "Let's rise together, as equals."

Shunsui had decided then and there, that he would remain Ukitake's equal for as long as they both wanted. Besides, if he were pushed into achievement, becoming a shinigami was at least marginally better than becoming a bureaucrat.

"Sounds good to me."

Ukitake's hand brushed against Shunsui's. "Together." Ukitake repeated.

\--

If Ukitake were around when one asked Shunsui that one question and listened to Shunsui's casual and woefully incomplete answer, he would of course smile and allow the true story to bubble in his memory.

But if, say a little later, one were to catch up with Ukitake as he fed the carps in the koi pond, and asked the converse question—When did he first notice Shunsui?—his answer would be clear and complete.

"It was the first day of classes at the Shinigami Academy—and this classmate of mine offered to protect me from bullying. I might not have needed the help, but I had decided then and there, that I wanted him to rise to the top with me. No one else would have done."


End file.
